Abstract

The Chapter discusses Susan Stebbing’s conception of analytic philosophy as a discipline that can help to achieve clear thinking not only in fields of academic interest but also in public matters. We first explore Stebbing’s long road to analytic philosophy, her mature position as an analytic philosopher and her work on developing and in defense of clear thinking. Then we show that this work of Stebbing’s is the clearest expression of a side of the early analytic philosophy that is generally neglected. Analytic philosophy, as seen by its founding fathers G. W. Moore and Russell, can help us to improve our thinking. As a matter of fact, many of its contemporaries saw it this way. Especially close to Stebbing’s understanding of the practical significance of analytic philosophy was Russell. This side of analytic philosophy was not forgotten in the UK in the first years after the Second World War—but in the 1960s and later by what is now called late analytic philosophy.